1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communication systems and, in particular, to communication systems and methods for bridging voice mail among a plurality of voice mail systems.
2. Statement of the Problem
Telephone service providers offer many features to service subscribers. One feature traditionally offered is voice mail services. Wireline service providers, wireless service providers, VoIP service providers, etc, all offer some type of voice mail service. For example, if a caller places a call to a wireless subscriber and the wireless subscriber does not answer the call, then the wireless network routes the call to a voice mail system for the wireless subscriber. The caller may then leave a voice message in the voice mailbox for the wireless subscriber.
One problem with current voice mail services is that a person may have many telephone numbers, and consequently, many voice mailboxes. For instance, a person may have a home number, a mobile number, and a business number. The person probably also has a voice mailbox corresponding with each of those telephone numbers. If a caller wishes to leave a voice message for that person, then a problem for the caller is whether to leave a voice message at the home number, at the mobile number, or at the business number. The caller probably does not know which voice mailbox the person will check first. Therefore, to be sure the person gets the voice message in a timely manner, the caller may have to call each telephone number for that person and leave a voice message at each number. This is inefficient and an inconvenience for the caller.